The new high school in New Richmond is the centerpiece of the largest school construction referendum ever passed in Wisconsin, and students entering the new building for the first day of classes on Thursday seemed a bit overawed by the school’s size. “It’s really big, too big,” said one. “It’s really big and confusing,” was another’s reaction. “I’m sure there are things that keep popping up,” said Principal Jeff Moberg. “We’ve got a number of people who are just helping put out some of the fires and making sure things are working the way we want them to, and I’m sure in a couple of weeks we’ll have things smoothed out. Moberg, who for the last four years has doubled as principal and liaison with contractors working on the new school, added that the high school is “about 99 percent complete.” 

Voters in the New Richmond district passed a $92 million referendum in 2007. The high school cost about $57 million. The building has a capacity of 12-hundred students. New Richmond currently has about 850 students in the ninth through twelfth grades. A formal dedication ceremony is scheduled for October 2nd. The building referendum also approved a new elementary school, remodeling of two existing elementary schools and the remodeling of the old high school.

AUDIO: WIXK‘s Jeff Petersen (:30)

A western Racine County man is hospitalized in serious condition after diving into shallow water at a Kenosha County lake. The Sheriff’s Department says 22-year old Jeremy Riens is being treated for spinal injuries at Burlington Memorial Hospital after diving into just under 2- feet of water in Lake Benedict. His girlfriend discovered him not breathing after he’d been in the water about a minute. Reports indicate Riens had consumed several beers prior to the pair deciding to go skinny dipping. The incident happened at a home where Riens was doing some work for friends.

Tom Karkow, WRJN

A piece of Janesville history is bulldozed. The Case Feed building, considered one of the oldest stores in the city, was demolished Tuesday. Linda Campbell and her sister Cindy Baxter lived above the store for 23 years. They moved out in 1992, and say conditions deteriorated quickly once the building was sold. The building has been the subject of city raze or repair orders off and on for the past few years. The city began tearing it down around 8:30 Tuesday morning. The property owner will receive the bill for demolition – about $25,000.

Bob Hague reports/audio WCLO (:60)

One of two southern Wisconsin brothers serving in Afghanistan has been killed. 20-year-old Army Private Adam Novak of Prairie du Sac and another soldier died last Friday, when insurgents used an improvised explosive device to attack their vehicle.

Novak’s 23-year-old brother Logan began serving in Afghanistan a week ago. He was sent home after his brother died.

The family had moved from Wisconsin to Fergus Falls Minnesota, where they stayed for 11 years before moving back. Novak was in the Boy Scouts in Fergus Falls, and he played soccer there. He completed his senior year of high school at Sauk-Prairie, where he graduated in 2008 and joined the Army. He met his wife Celeste at basic training. They were married in March, and were planning to have a formal ceremony upon his return home in November.

Adam Novak was a private in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division’s cavalry regiment based at Fort Campbell Kentucky. Funeral arrangements are pending in Prairie du Sac.

WSAU

Time is running out to sign up for the latest edition of the state’s Do Not Call list.  The deadline is Tuesday to put your home or cell phone number on the October update to the list, which makes it so telemarketers know not to call. Division of Consumer Protection Administrator Janet Jenkins says over 2.1 million Wisconsinites are on the list.

Numbers on the list expire after two years, but Jenkins says you don’t have to wait to renew your registration. Signing up again before your two years have expired will simply extend your stay on the list by another two years.

The list does not prevent calls from charities or political causes. Jenkins says it also can’t stop telemarketing calls that come from overseas, which has appeared as a growing trend. She says it’s not a perfect system, but it does still keep many types of businesses from calling your phone.

You can register online at online or by calling 1-866-9-NO-CALL. If you miss the deadline this time around, the list will update again at the end of the year.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:13)

A man is killed by a bull on a cattle farm in Racine County. The Medical Examiner says the attack may have occurred many hours before the victim, in his 50′s, was discovered among tall weeds in a field next to the pen containing the bull, which weighs upwards of 1500 pounds. The victim, with multiple punctures and other trauma, crawled away from the animal, and then died. The man’s wife failed to locate him, but then a brother showed up and made the discovery. The bull was on it’s way off the farm anyway, to a processing plant.

Tom Karkow, WRJN

Tonight is the night the whole world is waiting for … Earth will have two moons.

An email being circulated tells amateur astronomers that the planet Mars will be so bright that, to the naked eye, “it will appear to be the same size as the moon.” The message says “no one alive today will ever see it again,” because it won’t happen again until 2287 — that’s 277 years from now.

As you might have guessed, that’s just bogus.

“No; Mars would be very hard to see. It would look fairly dim. It is in the western sky in the evening right now.”

Madison Area Technical College (MATC) astronomy instructor Dixie Burns says Mars is right next to Venus, which is much brighter. Burns says Mars can never appear to be as big as the moon, no matter how many years we wait around to see it.

“No; it can’t be because it’s too far away … Mars is millions of miles away from us.”

Why would someone just make this stuff up? Burns gives them the benefit of the doubt, saying it might have started out as a misunderstanding, yet the email circulates every August. Mars does get a little closer to our planet every two years, if you’re interested.

Despite the Mars hoax, Burns says there will be something to see in the night sky. Jupiter is pretty close to Earth and very bright. Burns says backyard astronomers can look in the eastern sky to see Jupiter and its four moons.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:39

They lost a city council vote last week, but advocates of backyard chickens in Medford aren’t giving up. Instead they’re turning to the airwaves, hoping the mayor or least one council member will reconsider their votes. “Citizens For Chickens” are pooling their money for an ad campaign on the local radio station. Joe Kohn, whose three chickens precipitated the council action, says he’s been given a month to get rid of his birds. His eight year-old son Zachary is heard on the commercial, urging chicken supporters to contact the mayor and council. The city council deadlocked 4-4 on August 17th, on a measure to prohibit keeping chickens in the city, and Mayor Mike Wellner voted in favor of the bird ban.

Citizens for Chickens radio ad (:30)

Dozens of people crammed into a town hall in Clark County Wednesday night to learn more about a convicted murderer and rapist who is set to move into their neighborhood next week. Those that couldn’t find room in the building listened through the windows as information was presented about Gary Thiede. Thiede was 18 when he committed a grisly murder in Hatfield 1988. He is a Level 3 sex offender. Probation officers have found a landlord willing to rent him a home on a dead end road south of Neillsville. 

Cherise Nielsen of Probation and Parole did her best to quell fears. She said Thiede would be monitored with a device that alerts authorities if he leaves his property and GPS monitoring. “So he’s actually double monitored, and that’s not true of most sex offenders. We knew the community was upset about Gary being out there, so we wanted to make sure that he was monitored as much as we possibly can,” said Nielson, adding that Thiede will also be supervised by a Probation and Parole agent who will visit him at least once a week as well as make “collateral visits” to neighbors. “Don’t be surprised if you have an agent who knocks at your door. She’s looking for information to make sure he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing.”

AUDIO: Cherise Nielson (1:08)

Nielsen said, like it or not, Thiede has served his time and deserved to be released, a comment which drew derisive jeers from many in the crowd. Joe Holman, whose property abuts the property where Thiede will live, said the meeting “made him upset,” because he learned he had no legal recourse to the placement.

WCCN‘s Paul Knoff reports (1:25)

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Department has released the name of a four-year-old Hustisford girl killed Wednesday when she was attacked by a dog. Sheriff Todd Nehls says it happened in the backyard of a Town of Hubbard home where the family of Taylor Becker was visiting friends. A neighbor passing by around 12:45 p.m. witnessed the end of the attack and alerted the adults inside the home, but it was too late. Emergency responders found Taylor unresponsive with multiple wounds. She was taken to Beaver Dam Hospital and later pronounced dead.

The Sheriff’s Department says it’s believed the dog slipped out of its collar during the incident but that was of no consequence because the dog had free reign of the backyard even while on a leash. The dog, a boxer, did not have any history of violence and it’s been taken to the Dodge County Humane Society while the investigation continues.

Thanks to Zach Heilprin WBEV/WXRO